Chapter 1684: Face God Hou Zhenzhen

The raging fires across the mountains suddenly paused the moment the divine shadow appeared. Under an invisible pressure, the previously roaring flames, having reached their peak, began to wane. Centered on the divine shadow, they rapidly extinguished.

What vanished was not just the true spirit flames, but also the Mountains and Seas, the Void Realm, and everything within perception. The location of the divine shadow seemed to become an absolute low point within the area, siphoning everything around it. Perhaps because the engulfed Mountains and Seas were insignificant in magnitude compared to a god, the profound divine shadow showed no change despite its massive consumption. It remained quietly standing ahead.

Beyond the shattered Mountains and Seas, the colossal roaring sound that had been rapidly approaching gradually faded into silence after the divine shadow truly materialized. Within the observable range, all was dead silent.

Only Li Fan, in his state of dispersed true spirit, retained some consciousness. Yet, he was powerless to do anything more, able only to drift with the current, falling towards the abyss where the divine shadow stood.

"This...""Is this a god?"

Li Fan's thoughts were calmer than ever before. As he was about to fall into the abyss, there was no panic in his heart. It was as if the divine shadow before him was his homeland, and his return was merely a destined fate. With such a peaceful mindset, Li Fan was able to observe the materialized divine shadow as thoroughly and carefully as he could. All sorts of insights flooded his mind.

"Even in the presence of a god, it is not something ordinary people can comprehend.""A god is like one residing high above the Nine Heavens, too far from mortals for ordinary people to clearly perceive.""But I, who wield both the Grand Dao of True and False, am already like one standing in the sky.""Extremely close to the god, within arm's reach, thus allowing for understanding."

For Li Fan, time seemed to stop at this moment. No fear or dread, no joy or greed, no sorrow or anger. There was no sentiment of "if one learns the Dao in the morning, one may die in the evening without regret," nor any reverence for the god's profound mystery. There was only instinctive observation, and then, thoughts arose.

"Neither spirit nor matter, neither existence nor non-existence, neither tainted nor pure, a calamity beyond calamities.""Reflecting myriad forms yet formless, giving birth to myriad laws yet without thought.""All beings are its children, and also its abyss.""To know it as a boat is to drown in the boat; to perceive it as the Dao is to lose the Dao.""Unfathomable, immeasurable, invisible, inaudible..."

These murmurs erupted from Li Fan's mind, one after another. In this space, it seemed there was nothing else but the divine shadow and Li Fan. As Li Fan gazed at the divine shadow, the divine shadow also perceived him. The two were mysteriously opposed.

The descent into the abyss suddenly accelerated. Amidst the silent flow, whispers gradually arose. Listening closely, they were precisely Li Fan's previous insights upon seeing the god! It was as if within the abyss of the divine shadow, countless other selves were waiting for Li Fan to join them!

"Return, return..."

About to fall into the divine shadow, Li Fan seemed to accept this fate, embracing it calmly. True-Return, for some unknown reason, also remained silent, letting Li Fan do as he pleased.

As if one foot had stepped into the abyss, the shadow Li Fan felt gradually grew larger. However, the instinctive insights that surged within him diminished as a result. His body was infinitely stretched, the front half continuously falling towards the divine shadow. The latter half, however, continued its descent. Li Fan patiently waited for himself to completely merge with the divine shadow.

He waited and waited... He didn't know how much time had passed, but the surrounding Mountains and Seas and Void Realm had already been completely consumed. But... Li Fan's descent was still not complete!

"What's going on?""Has it been too long?"

Absolute inner calm did not mean a complete loss of thought. Instinctively, questions arose in Li Fan's mind. Thus, he began to think again and easily found the answer.

"Oh... it's because my True Spirit is infinite."

Like a stone stirring a thousand waves, Li Fan's "calm" state after seeing the god was shattered.

"It seems...""A god isn't all that remarkable?"

As soon as this thought emerged, everything instantly turned upside down!

"The East Sea can swallow all the water under heaven, but what if water without a source comes from the sky?""Even if the East Sea expends all its power, it would be difficult to receive it.""Heh! In the end...""It's just a divine shadow."

Li Fan sighed deeply in his heart. His infinite true spirit, still outside, transformed into a large hand, pushing slightly with force. He forcibly pulled out the portion of his true spirit that had been engulfed by the divine shadow! Furthermore, the return of these reverse-flowing true spirits seemed to bring with them some shadows unique to the god.

Gods had always devoured everything, but today, a god was surprisingly 'fleeced.' The abyss-like ink color, after a moment of silence, gradually began to boil. Previously, it had maintained a divine demeanor, sitting still, silently waiting for all things in the world to fall into its abyss. Now, however, it actively exerted power, intent on devouring Li Fan!

Although relying on his infinite true spirit, he had previously escaped the descent. But with the divine shadow actively devouring him now, Li Fan clearly felt he could no longer hold on.

"Let's see what this so-called divine shadow amounts to before the Transformation of True and False."

Li Fan finally chanted "True-Return" silently in his heart. The boiling shadow abyss became still once more. The seven characters, "When True acts as False, False is also True," appeared out of thin air in Li Fan's vision. They then burst open suddenly, encompassing the universe. Everything seemed to be enveloped in a layer of mist, becoming blurry. Even the profound divine shadow was no exception!

However, unlike the other Mountains and Seas that had fallen into stillness, the divine shadow became even more active as the mist covered it! It lunged towards Li Fan at a speed almost visible to the naked eye! This was the first time Li Fan had been so overtly threatened by an external entity after activating True-Return. His heart couldn't help but skip a beat.

Just as the divine shadow was about to touch Li Fan... A flash of light rose within the white mist. Like a sharp sword, it struck the lunging shadow. The shadow instantly split into two, then was submerged by the white mist, becoming blurry once again.

The divine shadow's only chance of victory thus vanished. Li Fan, as always, was enveloped by True-Return, restarting the Mountains and Seas.

This time, he seemed to have slept for an unusually long time. When Li Fan's consciousness awoke, his mind was briefly blank, and for a moment, he couldn't recall his last experience from the previous life. It wasn't until he sat dazedly for most of the day that he remembered everything.

"Whew...""After seeing the divine shadow, my actions were a bit reckless. This isn't like my usual temperament; was I influenced by something?"

Li Fan frowned deeply, pondering for a long time but finding no answer. Lines of small characters kept flashing before his eyes, seemingly urging Li Fan to make a choice.

"Could it be that True-Return has changed again?"

Li Fan suppressed the chaotic thoughts in his mind, focusing his attention on observing. Unfortunately, compared to the previous life, there were no obvious changes.

This simulation has ended.You may choose one of the following options to retain:1. Your cultivation, possessions, or the Grand Dao you mastered during this simulation.2. The simulation results of any close Daoist friend from this simulation. This result can overwrite the current Mountains and Seas.3. The outline of Mountains and Seas changes in this simulation.4. An abridged record of star-glow fluctuations in this simulation.5. Forfeit the above choices to accelerate charging progress.

"Logically, the Transformation of True and False should be instantaneous, based on a single thought.""Why can I only choose one out of four, and not have them all?"

Li Fan didn't make a choice easily; instead, he questioned True-Return. Clearly, True-Return would not answer Li Fan's question. Lines of small characters continued to flicker on the light screen, as if mocking Li Fan.

Li Fan, finding no response, didn't mind. He didn't rush to make a choice but first carefully examined the changes in True-Return. Although his state was reset to the anchor point, True-Return was not. First, there was the 'Grand Dao of Reversion to True' section.

"The Grand Dao of Ceaselessness has already entered.""But the Grand Dao of Longevity...""Shou Qiu's premonition was indeed correct. In the vast unknown, there truly exists another Longevity. Moreover, the power of this Longevity wielder has reached an unfathomable realm, capable of resisting the influence of the Grand Dao of Reversion to True to a certain extent."

The Grand Dao of Longevity had entered, but not entirely. The characters for other Grand Daos were all multi-colored. Their clear power allowed Li Fan to grasp the principles they expounded upon sight. But this Longevity... was just a transparent outline. Though it had the form of Longevity, it was clearly not complete. Witnessing this, Li Fan frowned slightly: "It seems that Longevity being in this Hall of Reversion to True isn't entirely a good thing."

As if sensing Li Fan's thoughts, the already transparent characters for Longevity suddenly faded, as if vanishing into thin air. Li Fan's heart stirred, and when he actively thought of it, it reappeared.

"Able to exist between true and false, real and illusory, exquisite!" Li Fan couldn't help but praise."I wonder who the true Master of Longevity is."

In the previous life, working in concert with Shou Qiu, Li Fan also learned of some of Shou Qiu Gong's own conjectures regarding this. "It dates back to the extremely distant dawn of the Mountains and Seas, an ancient era before even Shou Qiu Gong was born. It might even be the very moment the Mountains and Seas first separated from the divine."

"Perhaps it suffered heavy damage in that conflict.""Its main body did not get entangled in the evolution of the Mountains and Seas over time, but a fragment fell into the Mountains and Seas..."

Li Fan suddenly mused. Although there was no actual basis for it, being able to contend with the restrictions of the Grand Dao of Reversion to True already demonstrated the extraordinary nature of that true Master of Longevity. "Perhaps they are not inferior to the Sanctified Ones. It's better not to provoke such a figure for now."

After returning to the anchor point and starting everything anew, Li Fan regained his characteristic caution. "Besides the two Grand Daos, there's also the Xuanji Ring." "The divine shadow."

At the end of the previous life, Li Fan had confronted the divine shadow. He used the great true spirit flames to break through its surface concealment, directly facing its inner core. Because of this, he gained a clear understanding of its essence.

"It is not truly the shadow of the fallen Creator God.""Instead, it is a product crafted by the Sanctified Ones, who used unfathomable power to materialize the concept of 'god.'""Although not a physical entity, the Sanctified Ones' cultivation reached the pinnacle of creation; the shadow they created truly possesses some of a god's power.""If... if the Sanctified Ones' understanding of the Mountains and Seas and the Void Realm had progressed further, or if they had claimed the Transformation of True and False for themselves, perhaps what they would have created would not have been a divine shadow, but a divine body."

The divine shadow was the most core manifestation of all the Sanctified Ones' understandings. Therefore, upon realizing that others were attempting to pry into the Mountains and Seas, they disregarded everything and hastily sought to intervene. However, once they realized that the divine shadow's core was exposed and the situation was irreversible, and also fully understood the destructive impact its manifestation would have on the Mountains and Seas, they abandoned their attempts to stop it.

It must be said, the divine shadow lived up to its name. Once it materialized, it caused the Mountains and Seas and the Void Realm, everything, to plunge into it, as if the Creator God desired to be reborn through its shadow. Only Li Fan, not only resisted the divine shadow's engulfment temporarily with his infinite true spirit, but also managed to bring something out of the divine shadow itself.

"Obtain one, obtain all.""This mottled speck is the divine shadow itself.""It's like the mold shaped by the Mountain Staff, Sea Returning Shovel, and Myriad Beings Club; with this, and the assistance of the two Saints, the Xuanji Ring can be recreated."

In the subsequent confrontation with True-Return, the divine shadow's complete defeat undoubtedly showed that it was merely a phantom, no match for True-Return at all. Naturally, it couldn't ignore True-Return and still exist within the reset Li Fan. But...

Li Fan gently closed his eyes. The next moment, the infinite true spirit within him seemed to boil. It was as if he was re-experiencing the ordeal of being dragged and falling into the abyss; his body and soul were still mortal. But his infinite true spirit had silently flowed out.

In the void, there seemed to be an invisible mold. After Li Fan's true spirit quietly flowed through it, a phantom image then stood erect. Compared to the divine shadow created by the Sanctified Ones, this one before him was clearly much more ordinary.

"The divine shadow is the Sanctified Ones' deconstruction of 'god.'""And this one is my deconstruction of the divine shadow, based on the previous infusion of my true spirit.""Although it falls short by more than a tenth in other aspects, it is blessed by the Transformation of True and False...""It possesses a unique charm of its own.""It's enough to forge the Xuanji Ring!" Li Fan's eyes gleamed as he said with great confidence.

This phantom image was not as aggressive as the divine shadow created by the Sanctified Ones, which sought to devour all things in the Mountains and Seas. Instead, it seemed to exist between reality and illusion, ethereal and uncertain. It floated like a ghost above Li Fan's head. The Great Xuan, the Xuanhuang Realm, even the Primordial and all the various nearby Mountains and Seas, were all reflected within it. Like carving knives, they sculpted the phantom image, leaving no visible marks, yet deeply etched.

As the creator of the phantom image, Li Fan could naturally observe the changes happening to it every moment with great clarity. "This divine shadow is both a manifestation of my insights, and after its birth, it can actively help me comprehend everything it comes into contact with nearby."

"Though not comparable to the insights gained from the Grand Dao of Reversion to True...""It's not far off either."

The phantom image was like a mirror; Li Fan used it to peer into the Mountains and Seas. His comprehension seemed to multiply dozens of times out of thin air!

"This change is the miraculous finishing touch of the Transformation of True and False.""My comprehension of the Transformation of True and False is like comprehending all principles in the world. Previously, I had to undertake a transformation myself, but now with the help of the divine shadow, that trouble is spared.""If I had obtained this at the beginning of my cultivation, I would have been overjoyed. Unfortunately...""After reaching the Saint stage, so-called aptitude and comprehension no longer play a decisive role.""Although it can temporarily bridge some of the gap with the Sanctified Ones, if I truly wish to contend with them...""I still need the assistance of True-Return."

Li Fan was exceptionally clear-headed.